Minneapolis/St. Paul – The NBA today named Minnesota Timberwolves’ center Nikola Pekovic as its Western Conference Player of the Week for games played April 1-7. The honor is the first of Pekovic’s career and the Wolves’ first since Al Jefferson was named Western Conference Player of the Week for the week of Jan. 5, 2009.

For the week, Pekovic averaged 25.0 points, on 58.9% shooting, and 8.5 rebounds per contest as the Wolves went 3-1 with wins over Boston, Milwaukee and Detroit. The 6-11 center led the Wolves in scoring in all four games, tallying at least 20 points in each, including 29 in Minnesota’s 110-100 victory over the Celtics on April 1. Later in the week, Pekovic poured in 24 points and went 12-of-16 from the free-throw line vs. Toronto, with both totals representing a career best. His 20-point, 13-rebound performance to close the week helped Minnesota to a 107-101 win over the Pistons, which marked the 1,000th career victory for Wolves’ head coach Rick Adelman.

For the season, Pekovic is averaging a career highs in scoring (16.4 ppg), rebounding (8.9 rpg), assists (0.9 apg), steals (0.7 spg), blocks (0.8 bpg) and minutes (31.8 mpg). Pekovic has tallied a team-leading 26 double-doubles and 11 20-point/10-rebound efforts this season. He has pulled in an offensive rebound in 72 consecutive games – the second-longest active streak in the NBA (Kevin Love – 75).